Media devices, such as digital music players, typically access their content from sources of content that typically have larger storage capacity. These content sources may include personal computers and media servers. Generally, a user connects a player to the content source. The content source typically has a software application allowing the user to select the content to be loaded onto the player. In the example of a music player, the content would be digital music files, such as MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group, layer 3) files.
In order to allow the user to select content, this application knows all of the content available. As the user selects content, the application moves the content to the player. This application may also provide the user the ability to manage the content on the player, as the player is connected to the content source running the application. In general the content source may be able to access content on a remote database through a media subscription service or other means.
Management of the content, both on the content source and the player, generally involves tools to organize and classify the music files. Organization may take the form of sorting or grouping of the content files. One example of grouping the files is a play list. A play list may identify files that have a similar attribute, such as the artist, genre, or may be those selected by the user. Creation of a play list generally involves the user selecting each content file individually and then identifying that file as being part of the play list. The play list is then saved with some sort of identifying name, allowing the user to play those files by selecting that play list.
Once the user has selected the files desired and performed any organizational tasks, the files are transferred to the player. Some terminology would classify this transfer operation as a ‘push’ operation, where the content source pushes the content to the player. A problem with the push operation is that the user must connect the player to the content source to perform the transfer, and that the transfer is directed by the content source. It would be useful if the user had more control of the organization and the transfer from the player.